The results come as ING tries to put a hefty 775 million euros fine it incurred in the third quarter for poor monitoring of money laundering by clients.

Analysts polled for Reuters expected pretax earnings to come in at 1.57 billion euros for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with 1.56 billion euros a year ago.

ING said it had won new customers despite the scandal and seen net loan growth of 3.2 billion euros. Among key banking metrics, its net interest margin was 1.56 percent, slightly worse than 1.58 percent a year ago, but its cost/income ratio improved to 57.1 percent from 59.9 percent.

“We see the need for better cost discipline as we expect lower lending in the wholesale banking division (in 2019),” CEO Ralph Hamers said in a statement.

The company said that the macroeconomic outlook globally had deteriorated but “remained robust in both Europe and the U.S.”

Provisions for bad loans increased to 242 million euros, up from 190 million euros, but the bank considers both figures below average for over the economic cycle.